Other squadron level mods

[_AH_DarkWolf]

  I thought I'd start this thread so we had a place to discuss other possible mods we may want to look into as a squadron. Heres some that I've been looking at the last couple days.

  One is the Hurricane IId.  It's a version of the Hurricane that was widely used in North Africa and the far east in the anti-tank role. It has only two .303 machine guns, but carries a 40mm gunpod under each wing. You have the loadout option of Armor Piercing or High Explosive ammunition. The basic a/c is a hurricane, so we have a proper cockpit for it. It has it's own flight model and installs as a new a/c, it does not overwrite anything else. I think this a/c would be really usefull for creating missions in the above mentioned theatres.

  Second is the Beaufighter Mk.X. We've talked before in missions about how the Beaufighter we have is the australian version. The Mk.X was the definitive version used by the strike wings of Coastal Command in the ETO. It has two additional .303 machine guns in the right wing, a rear gunner and the ability to carry mixed loads or ordinance. ie. torpedoes and bombs, torpedoes and rockets etc. As with the hurri IId, we're dealing with an a/c we already have the cockpit for. I'm not certain of the accuracy of the gunners position or whether it's taken from another a/c, but I think the gunner's seat is less important. This Beau is the same as the hurri in that it installs as a new a/c. This a/c could be usefull for the anti-shipping missions many of us have made on the norway map.

  Another mod I like is the Malta map. It has a chunk of Sicily running along the top, with the Malta and Gozo down near the middle. So far I'd say this map is quite well made, the size of the island and the various airfields look good. The map comes in 3 different levels of detail to accommodate less powerfull computers. The medium version has nice detail without being much more of a performance hog than the normal version. I think this map has great potential for some fun missions and even the basis for a campaign. Installation was easy, you just point the installer to your 4.09 install.

So I'd like to suggest that we consider the above mods. These are mods that we'd all have to have in order to use them, so we'd have to decide as a group. I think the biggest step was going from 4.08 to 4.09 modded, adding these additional parts is simpler.

[_AH_Col._Hogan]

I don't know if this will be the official voting thread, but if it is,  then ,.............................WHOOOHOOOOO!!!!.......................S!

[_AH_Duff4r]

Good Idea Dark! ....and to think that Skat said....ahh never mind  :lol-053:

The Malta map is excellent.  I'm betting the "Gonz" votes for this.

Planes are excellent.  I have these installed but to avoid conflicts (-) their folders.

Anyway.  I think we should!

duff

[_AH_Gonzo]

I'm in for the Hurri IID, the Beau X, and the Malta map.

One minor note about the Malta map: While there are a few minor errors in airfield positions and runways available it is still the most accurate theatre map available in the game.

I'd also like to point out that there is a skin pack available that allows other aircraft types to be substituted for Italian aircraft (Mostly bombers) that operated in the Med ToA.

[_AH_Moggy]

~S~ all:Here is a list of the a/c mods that I've installed and tested:

1.  Hurricane IID
2.  PBN1
3.  Ki-46
4.  H8K1
5.  AR_196A3 (to be used as various IJN recce float-planes)
6.  A5M4
7.  Ki-21 (both I & II)
8.  C-47

All of them were test-flown and appear OK to me. 

Note that I haven't installed any of these in my 4.09 game yet.  They're all in a special "modded" version of 4.08.

Moggy

[_AH_BBQhead]

S~  Thanks for the report, Moggy.

  Has any other testing been done by any one on the planes in the list?   how many other guys have some or all of those planes installed?

     are any of the planes in this list already in the game or are they all brand new planes that have not been in there before?

   just wondering about missions  that have been previously built.. if they were AI only before, is there going to be a problem there?    that and, you know.. all the little things that we eventually came to see as problems in the last round when extra planes were made available...  actually i don't expect there to be much trouble if we all have them.. better safe than sorry though..     

  other less technical comcern is..and it's not directly related to extra planes so much as all of the stuff we've been adding.. how many files will a new guy joining the squad have to DL and install to catch up? seems like it's getting to be about two days worth of it so far... 

the way things are going i'm thinking we'll need to have a semi regular schedule for adding stuff..maybe every new moon.. update the download package that you'll need..  just kind of thinking out loud..   seems like coming on every other night and having to install something  we'd lose a lot of fly time.  On the other side.. the additions will bring a lot of new variety  to the game.. especially for the guys that like to build the missions.. new planes.. new maps..  woo hoo!    and for that we all need to have the same files installed...

i don't have room on my disc for another game folder right now.. maybe in a couple months i'll add  a drive.. and that might help get the testing done a little more quickly.. but for now.. please be patient and don't add the newest stuff unless you've got space for a new folder.. or don't mind  deleting and reinstalling if something should happen to not work for you.....       

[_AH_Duff4r]

S~

We really haven't had much issue as of late but here's a good thing to do.  Reports say it works and has worked very well for quite some time now.  Get it: Online_Spawn_Bug_Fix_v3

Here's the whole thread: http://www.allaircraftarcade.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3922

Duff

[_AH_DarkWolf]

Hmm, I wonder if that would fix the issue we had last night with the mrz_Malta map. In dogfight mode, once there were a certain number of guys spawning in at one paticular field they would spawn in, bounce and crash to the ground and go kablooie. Not a huge issue for us since our main interest in the map would be for COOPs.

On the topic of the mrz_Malta map, we had 16 or 17 guys flying it last night in dogfight and COOP modes. I think it went pretty good. Only one person had an issue with not being able to select a home base in the dogfight, but he was fine in COOP mode. The main issue I've seen so far is the level of detail in the Valetta area. The high and medium detail maps are quite rough on fps. The standard version, though FAR less detailed was MUCH better on the fps. There seems to be an odd drop in FPS when looking towards the western tip of the island from certain distances.

I see your point about how much a new member might have to download BB. Consider this too, if we're always running a version of the game with a bunch of required mods it's gonna be hard for any non member to join our games period.  Unless we add the info on every potentially required mod running in our COOP room name :

AH COOP - 4.09 - mrz_Malta map - BoB channel map - Hurricane IID - Beaufighter Mk.X - Typhoon - X-Wing - etc.

So we'll always need a 4.08 or unmodded 4.09 install to insure compatibility with the greater Il-2 community. Either that or lay off the recruitment officer.  :surprised-041:

DW

[_AH_BBQhead]

S~.. i was getting severe frame rate drops over malta even in the low res version.. at times, when i got far enough away from the island it would go up to almost normal.. but less than ten frames  when i was close to parts of the island..same thing DW was seeing.. look straight ahead.. 50 frames.. look left towards the island.. 14..  turn left and look straight ahead .. 7 ... after turning left and now looking right.. 50...  looking straight up i was up to 87 if i was over the water.. looking up if i was over the island.. 50 if i was lucky..  usually looking up i can get a max frame of 90+ no matter what's under me. 

haven't seen that same kind of thing in the slot maps.. unless it's over a city..  i've seen this same thing in some of the 408 maps.. palm trees or berlin i think it was.. couple others places, but it wasn't quite as severe as the malta map frame rate drops...

[Foxbat]

S! I built a coop mission on the medium level Malta map and did some testing on it. There are some areas on the map where you will see some pretty big frame rate hits. Its due to the detail on the objects and towns on the map. If you combine that with some added flak more planes and other things in a large coop, it becomes pretty rough to play. I have a decent machine but I fear that some of our guys with older systems might not even be able to fly it. I am going to try out the low level map and see if its much better.
One thing I gotta say is that I wish we could somehow look at this stuff a little closer before people just start putting it in. If you want to put in new planes maps etc thats cool but don't put them in the main 409 folder until its been hashed through with some testing. 
In this way it won't ruin a nights flying experiance with constant delays with problems? Just a thought. Also been testing 408 vs 4.09.
On my machine there is no question that 409 flys smoother with better FPS. I have checked that both versions are setup the same and 409 runs better. Since we are allowing the 4.08 mod to be run during our campaigns why don't we just run 409 for these? Along with that fly them on our lowest ping server. Rgaa has an excellant connection with a hot rod machine and if he is available to host these it could really cut down on lag and lost connections during the mission. I know that guys spend alot of time getting prepared to fly these and it is a major bummer when they lose connection or lag is bad. Maybe we could connect via ip and bypass HL for them too. We tried that before and everyone commented on how much better the game played. Just looking for ways to improve is all.

[_AH_Col._Hogan]

Here is southern Italy, Greece, Chezch, Yugo and North Afrika from Tunesia to Tobruk......................S!


http://picasaweb.google.com/Col.Hogan1910/BOB

[_AH_DarkWolf]

I'm sure you'll notice a HUGE difference around Valetta with the standard version of the map, Fox.

I see what you're saying too. Last night, we probobly got kinda lucky that we did'nt have any huge problems with so many people installing the mrz_Malta map. We should'nt expect every mod of this nature to go so smoothly. If we keep doing like we did last night, it will bite us in the butt sooner or later and a bunch of guys will have to reinstall. In future we should try and test the mods in a more limited fashion at first.

We should be VERY carefull of installing any BETA, WIP or any mod that modifies stock aircraft.

DW

[_AH_BBQhead]

If we keep doing like we did last night, it will bite us in the butt sooner or later and a bunch of guys will have to reinstall. In future we should try and test the mods in a more limited fashion at first.

We should be VERY carefull of installing any BETA, WIP or any mod that modifies stock aircraft.

DW

S~ yea.. we probably should have talked about this at the meeting, and then posted something to that end.. maybe in a thread called meeting notes in the general discussion  .. but then again..even if we did take the time to do that... some how i  think enough guys would ignore it  so that it wouldn't make any difference anyway.. :happy-026:

[_AH_crash]

Well... my 2 cents worth is that I agree with DW in excersizing a little caution in installing new mods and maps. It seems the door is wide open since we went for the 4.09b install to just grab and install whatever mod or map each single member is interested in. I'm just a little worried that becomming a "mod squad" is (as DW said) going to bite us all in our collective asses someday when we find half of us can't play with the other half.

[_AH_BBQhead]

S~..  we all agree that new stuff (that works) is a lot fun.. the new stuff adds to the game.. but there is definitely a trade off  for it.   more frustrations trying to get into the air.. more restrictive as to who can join our games... which diminishes the recruiting pool.  And.. in my humble opinion.. new members are way more fun than any game add on that i've seen or ever expect to see.

    We could do a lot better with the add ons if we didn't shoot from the hip so much. The stuff everyone has to have.. not the dust mods and the like..

I almost feel like when i join comms i'm gonna be immediately hit the DL and install of the day.. ok j/jk it's not that frequent... yet.   but it's not beyond the realm of possibilities..   

we've got at least half a dozen guys that like installing the new stuff and seeing what it is..and  always have a back up game folder..  and if it's not so good.. it gets deleted..  then there's the good stuff.

  For example.. you install a new plane and map..  and you want to share your joy of the new cool stuff.. so you get a couple other guys to install it.. so a map is built  and a room opens for  checking frames, spawns, surges, etc...  so far so good.. that's how it should start.. and we do that..   but that's usually where the trouble starts.. guys that show up want to join in.. and the answer is always.. sure why not.. get the DL  here.. and away we go..  lots of waiting and false starts.
 

  test flights should be short .. 10 minutes?.. looking for a specific bug or two.. then it should end..make some changes try something a little different with it.. no need for test flights to be 45 minutes long...  and if any one comes on that doesn't have it..even though it just takes a minute or two for some to DL and install... finish that one test.. if he's got a back up folder.. and volunteers...and is ready  by the time the next one is up .. and no one else has shown up .. go again if with  ya want. but don't expect guys that show up to volunteer to DL and install something they're hearing of for the first time.

if there's an add on of interest to you.. and it works.. well  we're all going to need it to fly the mission you're gonna build for us with it.. or probably  more accurately,  already have built for us...cuz you love us... or is it hate?... anyway..

post a link about what it is and where we can get it. .. and plan a night or two ahead...just a a little bit of time.. a day or two.. i think we could  alleviate about  half of the file transfer and install wait time,  and the  trying to rush frustations  and miscues.   

  open a room with the version we already have.. and....   and give us two days to get it downloaded and installed before we are graced with the goodness of  the awesome new stuff   you've helped us to get..... would stop the Rush of What? where? i'm trying to get it done in a hurry.. o @#$#$% i deleted it...gonna DL it again.. and so on..

 
  does that sound reasonable?